A Different Man review: Sebastian Stan stands out in a sharp tragicomedy
Aaron Schimberg's third feature boasts a clever story and a strong trio of performances
Film Reviews A Different Man
It’s easy and appealing to imagine how our lives might be different and better if things were just a little different. A desire for change is the basis for most stories, and the unintended consequences of those wishes are often what makes a plot. These, too, are the basic building blocks of A Different Man, the third feature from writer-director Aaron Schimberg. But his tragicomedy, which name-checks genre classics new and old like The Bluest Eye and Beauty And The Beast, is assured, absurd, and totally unique.
A Different Man follows Edward, a struggling New York actor who lives with neurofibromatosis. The effects of the condition are both psychological—Edward is shy and conflict-avoidant out of fear of how people might react to his face—and practical—his “tumors” will continue to grow, obstructing his sight and hearing. Edward enrolls in an experimental procedure that will cure him without surgery, and, after a lightly Cronenbergian transformation, wakes up one day now looking like (and portrayed by, in quite possibly a career-best performance) Sebastian Stan.
The secret that everyone knows quickly becomes clear—life is easier for the objectively, conventionally attractive. Edward chooses a new name and begins a new life. Relative fame and fortune quickly follow. When he discovers his former neighbor Ingrid (a perfectly high-on-her-own-supply Renate Reinsve) has written a play titled “Edward” about her relationship with who he used to be, he is easily cast—beating out other actors still living with facial differences despite his mediocre audition. His situation is further complicated when Adam Pearson’s Oswald arrives; though he has the same condition Edward once did, Edward’s meekness is matched by Oswald’s confidence and charisma.
It’s a hell of a premise, and it’s one that Schimberg is committed to taking to a 10. His screenplay is deliciously layered, structured around winking callbacks but clever enough to never show its cards or where it’s going. Schimberg is utterly confident in his story, and it’s his tact and taste that keep this story from turning into, say, Shallow Hal. A Different Man acknowledges the vague ethical debate surrounding casting actors with physical differences like Pearson’s. (At a post-screening Q&A, Schimberg shared that he was surprised at some criticism surrounding his casting of Pearson in his previous film Chained For Life; he quipped that for his next, he would cast one natural born actor and one in makeup, and let them battle it out to settle the conflict.) But A Different Man is less concerned with the ethics of representation than with questioning how one’s mindset can affect their life, and blowing that question up.
These themes are present, but A Different Man prioritizes laughs over proselytizing. There is inherent humor in the absurdity of the situation—which takes a momentary detour near sci-fi territory during Edward’s transformation—but Schimberg wrings laughs out of deftly staged awkwardness (though, thankfully, not cringe). Take, for instance, a very funny situation involving an ambulance and an ice cream truck, which drives home how one man’s tragedy is another’s inconvenience. Conversations of life and death are interrupted by apartment repairs. An awkward date ends with the most casually heartbreaking sex scene in recent memory.
Much has been made of the downfall of the big, studio comedy in the past decade, but A Different Man is at home in an emerging trend of dark, surrealist works. The film invokes positive comparisons to Kristoffer Borgli’s 2023 films Sick Of Myself and Dream Scenario—the old-fashioned cursed wish fantasy, fitted to our capitalist, attention economy. While Schimberg skews a bit more empathetic to his characters than Borgli might, none of these films are interested in their characters being victims, nor are they straight punchlines. More often than not, we laugh with Edward—a hell of an achievement, given how many people set out to pity him.
Reviewed as part of Film At Lincoln Center’s New Directors/New Films series.
13 Comments
This sounds good. I wish this article told me when and where I can see this.
Nah, you have to guess. Just go the the cinema nearest your home every day until it is playing, then buy a ticket. It’s the way we used to do it in the olden days.
People bitching about this is a pet peeve of mine. Reviews don’t tell you this anymore – I just scanned a bunch for this film /w the top 5 Google results. None of them do, because you can find it yourself and where you live impacts the answer. Look it up – you profess to be interested – and stop whining like a baby.
Where you live impacts whether or not a small film will show up in a theater near you, but I only clicked on this to see if it’s streaming or not. And oddly enough, the answer to where and when you can see this is in the article, at the end. The answer is nowhere and maybe some day, unless you live near Lincoln Center, and even then you probably just missed it.Actually, The AV Club has been a lot better about this recently. They generally post where to watch and when at the bottom of reviews now. But it’s still pretty spotty, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to include a “How can I find this” in an article convincing people that they ought to watch it. There used to be movie listings in the newspaper, but the Arts section still posted when it was opening.
This film is primarily doing one off screenings and festivals at this point. It’s not in a national release and the review mention it was a Film at Lincoln Center event.
He’s just a simplepoopshoe, he can’t be expected to pick up nuance like that.
Are one end of the “sensitivity to human diversity, be it physical or mental, in a comedy” is Shallow Hal. At the other end, The Ringer, where it will stay for years.
I just the other night watched ‘Under the Skin’, which has Pearson in a small but effective role. Glad he’s getting more work.
This is such an interesting premise and I love Sebastian Stan. Excited to see this!
Sebastian Stan sounds like a fake name.
His real name is Stan Sebastian, but his agent made him change it.
Sebastian Stan is highly underrated. Been rooting for him since MCU. He won the gender neutral Best Performer award for this movie at this year’s Berlinale. Hope this generates good buzz for him.
As an adult who was born with Neurofibromatosis (NF), I would love to bring some insight to the difficulties that come along with living life as someone who was born with NF.A special surgery to clearly change Adam Pearson’s character’s appearance in this film, would be GREATLY WELCOMED and TRULY LIFE-CHANGING if it could actually happen for him in real life and also to as well as for countless numbers of others who were born with Neurofibromatosis (NF).Society can be and is indeed, sadly so cruel & judgemental towards those living with NF because of the deformities that NF has the ability of creating.There are so many individuals living with NF who tend to avoid going out into public and they choose to just stay home because they fear the unfortunate ridicule. I know this feeling all too well and I’ve been asked many times things like, “what’s wrong with your face” or, “why do you have all of those bumps all over you?” or over the last few years I’ve been asked, “do I have “monkey pox?”.I try my hardest to turn the negative experiences into advocating to generate as much as possible, NF AWARENESS on all of my social media platforms (“Libertyeyes” on TikTok & also on Instagram).I am also the creator/founder of a large, public Facebook group that is for people who were born with NF or are the parents of children under 18 years old who were born with NF.The main goal is to increase as much as possible much needed awareness for Neurofibromatosis (NF) by showing the “faces” of NF. The purpose for us is to help prove the much greater need for more NF Physicians & treatment options for NF available to all of us on a global level. Living with this NEUROLOGICAL DISORDER can, and is, for millions of individuals, extremely difficult. Many of those living with NF suffer from deformities caused by NF, just like Adam Pearson (bless him for all of the awareness that he generates) does facially. The disorder is often confused for a “skin condition”, however, NF is actually a “neurological disorder” that causes tumors (“fibromas”, ‘bumps’) to develop anywhere there are nerve endings present, progressively at anytime, as we age.Currently there is NO CURE for NF and treatment options are extremely limited. Many regions around the world, have zero treatment ability options and zero physicians who actually treat those living with NF.This mostly is due to the lack of uneducated medical professionals and available research options globally. One example of a treatment for NF tumor removal is a procedure called, electrodessication, which has the ability to remove hundreds of tumors in only a couple of hours. Unfortunately, there are only VERY FEW physicians around the world, who have been specially trained to do the procedure specifically for NF.This was my #1 reason for creating the “faces of neurofibromatosis” group on February 12, 2016. There ARE treatment options available but they’re not made available to all of us affected by NF globally. I find this to be extremely frustrating and upsetting.
One major reason why the procedure is so limited, is that the medical community views NF patients as “rare”.Therefore, unfortunately, there really isn’t enough time, proper educating or training, nor enough research funding, that is made available for treating the NF Community. The medical community believes that NF affects approximately 1 in every 2,500 births worldwide. However, I FIRMLY BELIEVE that NF greatly affects SO many more individuals than what is estimated. The reason WHY medical professionals consider NF are ’rare’ is because they don’t see very many, if any at all, NF patients. The #1 reason why they don’t see them, is because there are countless numbers of medical professionals all around the world who don’t even know what NF is nor how it affects those living with it. Finding medical professionals who do know NF, is EXTREMELY “RARE”.This is a huge problem globally and NF REALLY NEEDS so much MORE FOCUS than it is currently receiving so that more NF patients can be treated appropriately. A big mindset for many of the medical professionals who ‘think’ they know what NF is, view it as simply just a “skin condition’ because of the tumors appearing on the skin surface.However, these tumors (fibromas, bumps) are technically NOT “on top” of the skin’s surface. They are actually on our NERVE ENDINGS causing them to “push upward” from BENEATH the skin surface.These tumors that develop externally as well as internally, CAN be surgically removed but oftentimes, they’re not properly removed because the Surgeon is basically only “cutting the tops” off of them thus leaving part of the tumor still inside of the patient.This quite often, results in the tumor resurfacing itself within time. NF tumor removals should be viewed the same way that we manage the grass on our front lawn. As long as each blade of grass still has a root attached to it, the grass has the ongoing ability to continue to grow itself.I have had close to thirty surgeries to remove many of my fibromas over the last twenty years. Some of them have returned and some have not and this is simply based off the knowledge of the surgeon who is performing the tumor removal procedures, knowing the importance of removing the entire tumor down to the nerve ending where they begin to grow.One thing that happens quite often is that a physician will deny a surgery to remove the tumors by saying that insurance won’t pay for the procedure because it would be considered “cosmetic”.However, I suggest advocating for yourself by reminding them that NF is NOT a skin condition and these “bumps” are NOT “on top” of our skin. They’re on our nerve endings and they DO cause pain and continuous itching. Both of which can be extremely unbearable.I continually work very hard to increase as much awareness for NF as possible on all of my social media as well as in person. I regularly carry with me NF brochures which help to explain NF to others and I can hand them out to any ‘new to me’ medical professionals that I’m seeing whether or not my medical visit is specifically for NF, or not. I will also hand out the brochures to anyone out in public who often will ask about my ‘bumps’ that are obviously appearing all over my body. If I notice anyone staring, pointing, whispering about the ‘bumps’ all over my body, I’ll walk right over and hand them one of my brochures.I believe that education is key and the more that we can educate others about NF, the more that people can recognize and understand the disorder.Society is able to recognize so many other common birth disorders and I feel that Neurofibromatosis should be recognized as well because it truly does affect so many people. Many of those living with NF have never been officially diagnosed and since NF is genetic, some of them will often just say, “that’s what Mom/Dad had and we’ve never sought any medical care for our NF simply because they know ‘nothing about it’ and so we choose to just stay home and ‘deal with it’”.There are also a lot of people who don’t even know that they have NF and oftentimes won’t find out until they’re in their 40s, 50s, 60s.Not all NF individuals have external “signs” of NF and will only have internal fibromas on for example, major organs in the body including the brain, heart, lungs, etc. A lot of people will have the tumors (fibromas) all along on their spine causing them constant chronic back pain for years but because Physicians don’t always order MRI’s to diagnose pain issues simply because they didn’t see anything showing up through an Xray.I try to encourage those with NF the importance of having regular MRI’s of their brain & spine to monitor for internal development. Many Physicians will try denying an order for an MRI because for example, their patient may only have a small handful of external “bumps” thus telling their patient that imaging isn’t necessary.However I try to encourage NF individuals to ‘push back’ if they need to do and explain to their physicians that their NF is NOT a ‘skin condition’ and the tumors CAN & DO grow on the brain, spine, etc.I focus strongly on encouraging other NF individuals to advocate the same way that I have been doing so that we can help EDUCATE the world, especially those working in the medical field, about our incurable birth disorder.
At the time of creating my NF Facebook group, Faces of Neurofibromatosis, I also created a motto that I live by and ask for all NFers to do as well because there is so much truth in it… “If We’re not Seen, We Can’t be Heard.”If you or someone you know has NF, please feel free to join our constantly-growing NF Community, “Faces of Neurofibromatosis”. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me on any one of my social media platforms if you also have NF. 😊